Two things: 1. Good drumming really stands out sometimes. Think “The Bleeding Heart Show” by the New Pornographers, and all those great, tight drum fills in the last half of the song. The Beauty Shop’s “Monster” is kind of like that, at least with the fills. It’s a good, solid, catchy track reminiscent of Blue Mountain’s alt-country or maybe even The Promise Ring. 2. The other thing this Champaign, IL, band reminds me of is another Illinoisian, Chris Mills. In the mid-1990s, Mills was opening up for Wilco in their earliest gigs. (I was the guy always yelling for Jeff to play “Gun.” Sorry I was so obnoxious.) He had a deep, rich, twangy voice that seemed far older than his actual age, and I used to listen to his promo CD on the El all the time and stare forlornly out the window. (Sorry I was so obnoxious!) The Beauty Shop’s lead singer John Hoeffleur has that kind of voice and it works well on the re-release of their 2004 album Crisis Helpline, due in late February.
Welcome
I love it when I walk into a record store, hear something playing and am curious enough to buy it. It doesn’t happen often enough. And when I find myself bopping to something I’ve never heard despite an apocalyptically foul mood–well, shoo-oot, bring it on! Well, Welcome was that band for me this past weekend. These folks are a girl and boy band, of Seattle, and to me they sound like the English or maybe a little Twee-ish or, wait, is that some pixie-ish guitar? I have no idea. But it’s a happy mish-mash of influences that I was glad to add to the soundtrack of my downer day. The bummer? Not available stateside until March, so I didn’t get to buy it. But the rest of the world is currently enjoying it now. Can you say import? Oh and be sure to check “This Minute†on the myspace page when you are done with what is here.
Boy/Girl
Wow. It’s not hard to see why members of the JSBX seem to be fighting each other over getting the chance to produce Boy/Girl. Hmmm, who would win Judah Bauer vs. Russell Simins? The straddling-the-line-between-lo-and-no-fi fuzzed-out blues-inspired duo-rock of Boy/Girl interprets what the JSBX would have been like on downers.
Bridges and Powerlines
NYC style power pop, a touch of 80s British post-punk rock with driving Strokes-like sensibilities, courtesy of Bridges and Powerlines. For fans of The Rakes, We Are Scientists, and like-minded bands. So that’d be me, a fan, then.
The God Damn Doo Wop Band
I did a workshop at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum about ten years ago — how to be a rock & roll teacher, hell yeah! — and there was this guy who just kept asking questions about doo wop bands. He was one of those guys who feels the need to comment at every single meeting, and so it was all like, “What about The Marcels?” and ” What about Vito and the Salutations?” or whatever. Most of my classmates had enough of him by the end of our first session together. Anyway, I have a feeling he would not appreciate The God Damn Doo Wop Band. Though tapping in to the grand tradition of the venerable genre, these Midwest girls (on the voices) and guys (on everything else) are clearly doo-wopping their own way. Straight out of the Twin Cities, their 2006 album Broken Hearts received a bunch of critical acclaim that, in true 3hive tradition, we totally missed last year.
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones with a free & legal MP3. That’s fun. Yeah, I know it’s cool to be all indie and stuff… I promise next week to post some band that no one has ever heard of. (Or, maybe I’ll post Tom Waits and bring this old couple back together. There are some free tracks of his over at the Anti website.) “Elvis Cadillac,” off the forthcoming The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, offers a taste of an album on which all of the songs are inspired by Jesus. While I’m not exactly the religious sort, if the rest of Sermon is as smooth and becoming as this song, Rickie Lee might make a believer out of me yet.
Loney, Dear
Hailing from Jonkoping, Sweden (pronounced Yun-Shu-Ping, sorta), Loney, Dear seems to be the next installment in the “Swedes take over all music made in 2006/07” saga and despite my confusion at how a big, cold, dark country with the same population as New York City manages to churn out one delicious pop song after another, I’m not mad at all at welcoming another artist to the family. Loney, Dear is full of upbeat, yet melancholic tracks sung in his happy/sad falsetto. Skol! (Cheers, in Svenska.)
WJ Kington
WJ Kington spends lots of time around his house recording found sounds, tapping on walls and household appliances and recording the results. Sometimes he just sits at the piano and records his improvisations. Rather than “perfecting” the recordings he’ll leave in sounds of passing trains and the crows scratching at his roof. What’s left are highly engaging compositions. I found these tracks via boingboing.net (if they’re not already a habit don’t start!) which linked to “I’m Talin,” a track made from samples of his young son ripping apart a cardboard box which he’d strung with rubber bands. Be sure to stop by his site for stories on each of the songs.
Menomena
Menomena is one of those bands who are truly making music for the sake of making music. These are not the songs that rock stars and groping groupies are made of. Unless you’re living in an alternate universe maybe. Menomena compose slightly skewed music and on their new album, Friend or Foe, it frequently sounds like a meeting of Morphine and XTC. It’s easy to get lost in Menomena’s world as you explore the album artwork, beautifully illustrated by cartoonist and graphic novelist, Craig Thompson, a weird, dense mix of flesh and blood, life and death, animals and machines. To dig in deeper, aurally and visually, pop open the ecard. It’s not an easy listen, nor will it be easily forgotten.
Benni Hemm Hemm
With only 300,000 inhabitants, Iceland turns out more great music per capita than any other country. Another case in point: Benni Hemm Hemm. My favorite description of Benni Hemm Hemm is “a little big band with little big songs”. What began as a solo endeavor, the ReykjavÃk-based Benedikt H. Hermannsson eventually decided to go big…17 people big. Now, Benni Hemm Hemm bring together the sweet sounds of trombone, guitar, trumpet, cornet, glockenspiel, and much more with cheerful, hopeful, and sometimes silly crooning (occasionally sung in English—sellouts…). The songs are fleeting and leave you hungry for more, a convenient fact given Benni Hemm Hemm record quickly and frequently.